News quiz for week ending 3/29/13

Questions

1. Senators Barbara Boxer and David Vitter are attempting to protect the Army Corps of Engineers budget from cuts all government agencies face in addition to the across the board sequester cuts by pushing a bill that would prohibit Congress from cutting the Corps’ budget unless lawmakers do so with a _______________. This is not required to cut funding at any other agencies. a) one-third voteb) unanimous votec) majority vote greater than 50%d) three-fifths vote

2. The Senators’ motive for exempting the Army Corps of Engineers from budget cuts is believed to be political because: a) both of their states benefit from the work of the Corps of Engineers, and their constituents would not be happy of they lost any of their projectsb) most of the Corps’ 38,000 employees and their families and friends live in their states and would not vote for them if their agency’s funding was cutc) it is a well-known fact that these two Senators don’t like the militaryd) the Army Corps of Engineers donates large sums of money to their re-election campaigns

3. A British teenager has sold a mobile app he first designed at home to Yahoo for:a) $30 to $60 millionb) $1 billionc) $35,000d) $3 to $6 million

4. The app the British teenager designed and sold to Yahoo:a) is a dictionary/thesaurus/encyclopediab) summarizes lengthy news stories to around 350-400 to make them more “user friendly” for a mobile screenc) is a modern version of the first video game “Pong”d) is a remote control that can be programmed to control any TV or media device in the house

5. In an effort to prevent the banking system in Cyprus from collapsing, the government is taking a bailout from:a) the eurozoneb) the United Nationsc) Russiad) Mark Zuckerberg

6. In exchange for the bailout, the government of Cyprus has agreed to:a) cut the government’s budget over the next 5 years by 50%b) quit the European Unionc) confiscate private funds from accounts held in Cyprus banksd) legalize same-sex marriage

7. In recent months, the North Korean government has threatened all but which one of the following? a) said it might attack the U.S. mainland, and that it was ready to hit the U.S. with a nuclear weaponb) said it would attack Iran and Russia c) said it could strike bases on the U.S. mainland, Guam, Hawaii and other targets in the Pacific and South Koread) said it could attack U.S. bases in Guam and in Japan

8. North Korea’s threats aren’t taken seriously yet because:a) no one believes they would really carry out any attacks if they had the capabilityb) the U.S. missile defense system is so advanced that no attack could ever successfully hit its intended targetc) Kim Jong Un likes Dennis Rodman too much to actually chance injuring him in an attackd) it is still widely believed that North Korea’s missile technology does not give it the capability of hitting long-range targets

9. Many successful cyberattacks on company networks occur because of:a) advanced hacker codeb) the army of Chinese hackers working day and night to take down our systemsc) the technological superiority of most hackersd) employees being tricked into giving out sensitive information

10. Companies are increasingly conducting simulated cyberattacks to trick employees into committing unsafe computing as a way to: a) train them not to be so easily fooled by real cyberattacksb) catch hackersc) fire those who open cat emailsd) give the executives something to laugh about during meetings